Friday, December 4, 2009

Raccoons in your car

"Raccoons love dumpsters, In fact many are killed each year because they get into dumpsters and cannot get out. If you see one in a dumpster and want to help it get out put a piece of lumber in the dumpster with one end on the top of the dumpster and the other end in the bottom of the dumpster, The raccoon will climb out on its own. "

"On August 18th 2004 the raccoon was dumpster diving and the compactor truck showed up, With no way out the raccoon was dumped into the truck along with the trash. He was seen surfing on the compactor truck by many people eating lunch at Morley Plaza in Saginaw Michigan southbound on Washington Ave where he bailed, Crashing through the back of Mr. Bankers car window. He hid under the seat for about an hour while a crowd built near the car." The writer was called to remove the raccoon from the car. More

Here's a wonderful video of a guy removing a young raccoon that was hiding in the engine of his van. The usual reason for animals in cars is that they are hiding there--it seems like a safe place for them. It's their temporary burrow. So if you lift the hood and make noise, they are just going to burrow deeper into their new den.

This fellow had poor technique--he started the engine. The outcome might have been raccoon caught in the fan belt or fan blade. Potentially a mess, and inconvenient for the raccoon. Better to just open the hood and go away, or put out some food it can smell.

Hitchhiking raccoons

"In 1990, rabid raccoons were moving into New Jersey from Pennsylvania. One of the ways they got into New Jersey? Hitchhiking. "Staten Island and other lower New York areas are not considered safe from incursions by rabid animals, despite water barriers like the Hudson River, Arthur Kill and Newark Bay. Raccoons swim and they are known to hitchhike.

''We've got racoons climbing in trucks loaded with something, and they go down to the city and jump out,' Mr. Van Nuys said." Source

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About me... and this blog

I'm a professional photographer, with a Ph.D. in zoology. This blog started when my neighbor told me about rats in his car. Since then, it's been evolving. I think the blog is really about unintended consequences, about how in the pursuit of their own happiness and welfare, people are causing harm to wildlife. It's a bit tragicomic--the unexpected events are funny, but the end results are sad. It's really a bigger problem than you'd think. There could be laws to address the problem.

About photos on this blog

All photos on this blog are by David Thompson unless otherwise noted. All photos are copyright by David Thompson, all rights reserved. My specialty is wedding photography.